Tension
by galleywinter
Summary: Kaidan gives Shepard a massage after a long, hard day of combat.


Minor spoilers for Jacob's involvement in ME3 (if you squint and know what you're looking for).

This is Bioware's sandbox; I'm just playing in it.

* * *

The team tumbled out of the shuttle, Garrus first, and then Brynn, and then both of them turning to help Jacob down, supporting him between them. Shepard watched the three of them carefully make their way to the elevator and then slowly hauled herself to her feet, feeling stiffer than she had since that fight with the yahg.

Somehow, she managed to shuffle out of the shuttle and gave only the barest grunt as her feet hit the floor and the impact jostled up through every single overworked, tense nerve of her back.

As she staggered to her locker, she was surprised at just how much everything _ached_. It had been a long, hard, brutal fight on Gellix. Muscles she didn't even know she _had_ were bruised and knotted, and something as simple as getting her gear off was proving to be more difficult than it had any right to be.

The mere attempt to cross her arm in front of herself and pop the releases on her chestplate produced only a wince and a breath hissed in through her teeth as pain radiated through her shoulder and down her side.

Cortez was halfway around the console, his eyebrows raised in concern. "Are you alright, ma'am?"

"Yeah," she grunted as she slowly, carefully, dropped her arm back to her side, trying to avoid aggravating the growing, stabbing _twinge_ underneath her shoulderblade. "I'm good."

Shepard dropped her head against her locker and closed her eyes, loving the feel of the cool metal against her heated skin. Maybe she could sleep standing up, in her armor, right here. It certainly wouldn't be the first time she'd slept in armor. It could be done if she really put her mind to it.

"You're a terrible liar," Kaidan muttered into her ear as he hit the seals on her chestplate. She tilted her head against her locker, and Kaidan obediently pressed a quick, gentle kiss to her temple.

"Not my fault you know all my tells," she responded with a tight, pained grin. Kaidan pulled the chestplate off of her slowly, and even the release of the weight and the pressure was only a small relief. As he stepped away, Shepard tried to reach for her greaves, and even the marginal bend of her waist sent sharp, searing pain rocketing up her sides.

He swatted her hands away, not unkindly. "I got this," he chastised. He stripped her of her greaves, made her lean on his shoulders as he squatted and removed her boots, didn't say a word as she stubbornly took off her own gloves while he was carefully pulling off her shoulderguards.

Kaidan's fingers curled gently against her waist as she stood there in nothing but her underarmor, her forehead still pressed to her locker. His hand skimmed up her back, and pain flared along her spine at the light pressure. Shepard winced, arching away from his touch.

He slipped his palms under the hem of her underarmor's shirt, gently tugging it up with him. She bit back a whine as Kaidan dragged his hands up her side, along her biceps, gently forcing her arms over her head so he could strip her of the shirt, and he pressed a quick kiss of apology to the top of her head as he tugged her shirt free. The pants, thankfully, were much easier.

Shepard shivered slightly as the tight layer of fabric peeled free from her legs, the cool air of the cargo bay cutting straight through her thin tank top and boxers.

"Go on up," Kaidan murmured into her hair, kissing her head once more. "I'll take care of your gear."

Shepard braced herself against her locker, trying to make turning around a little easier.

"Kaidan-" she started, but stopped short when Kaidan's palm cupped her shoulder and his thumb carefully, expertly pressed with utmost gentleness against the line of her shoulderblade and then gingerly rolled it against the tension. A ragged moan dragged up from her throat and her forehead thunked back against her locker.

"I'm going to take care of your gear," Kaidan murmured, his words careful and deliberate as he rolled his thumb along the edge of her shoulderblade again, drawing another groan out of her. "I'll be up in just a few minutes. Go on," he repeated softly, giving her a gentle, guiding push toward the elevator.

She obediently staggered toward the doors, grateful when they immediately opened for her and she didn't have to stop her forward momentum until she reached the back wall of the elevator.

"EDI," she grunted as she leaned into the back corner, letting the wall support her weight, "Loft, please."

When the doors opened onto her floor, Shepard carefully braced her hands against the elevator's walls and gave an experimental push. _God,_ it hurt. She gritted her teeth and turned around, shuffling out of the elevator and into her room. Making it down the steps was a bit of a stiff, hopping, stumbling adventure that made her _very_ grateful Kaidan was still down in the hangar.

She hauled a knee up onto the bed, pain lanced down her back, and she stifled a sob by biting her lip. She managed to flop down across the bed, ending up with her nose brushing against the bottom of Kaidan's half of the pillow. She took as deep a breath as she dared, two, letting the faint traces of his scent that still clung to the sheets wash over her.

The pain had become just barely tolerable, and she'd just started to doze when she heard her door cycle open. She tried to shove her hands under herself, to get the leverage to turn over or sit up or _something_.

"Don't," Kaidan's voice said, calmly, just loud enough to be heard over the hiss of the hydraulics and the burble of the fishtank and the hum of the engines, "even think about getting up."

Obediently, she dragged her hands back down and burrowed her face against the corner of the pillow, right into a little pocket that still smelled strongly of _Kaidan_. She heard Kaidan stop by the desk, heard the faint squeak as he sat in the desk chair, heard the distinctive faint _zip_ of combat boots being unlaced, the rustle of cloth.

And then the bed was dipping slightly, Kaidan's warm, hair-rough thighs sliding against the outside of her legs, his weight partially, carefully, settling just below her backside, and his hands, his glorious, wonderful, _brilliant_ hands were skimming along her spine under her shirt. He kept his touch feather-light, his fingers alive with bright, tiny flickers of static. This wasn't the sharp discharge of initial contact that she'd become accustomed to; this was a constant, gentle _tingling_ that always made every single one of her nerves hum.

Shepard groaned gratefully, trying to arch into his touch, and immediately hissed in pain. Kaidan flattened a palm against her back, gently pressing her to the bed.

"I got this, sweetheart," he said, and she could hear the grin in his voice, and she huffed out a chuckle in response. And then his clever fingers slid up to her shoulderblades, the static intensifying as he dug in just slightly, kneading her muscles with easy, rolling motions, and all Shepard could do was moan into the pillow as the tension slowly began to loosen.

His thumbs circled against her spine, his fingers still working along the lines and planes of her shoulders, and then his hands dragged slowly down, his thumbs eventually slipping down under the waistband of her boxers to dip into the hollows over her hipbones, his fingers curling into her waist and then her hips.

Kaidan carefully leaned down, his warmth radiating the length of her back. He mouthed the nape of her neck lazily - slow, wet, open-mouthed kisses that made heat flare and pool in her belly.

"Starting to feel better?" he breathed, his tongue flicking against her skin. Shepard dropped her head, giving him greater access, and experimentally rolled her shoulders and arched her spine. She stopped halfway through.

"Right shoulder's still a bit sore," she admitted, grudgingly, to the mattress. "And the middle of my back - just above my waist. Same side."

Kaidan dragged his hands up her back again with greater pressure and stronger static, the hem of her shirt catching on his wrists and hitching up.

"Gonna have to take these off," he murmured against the nape of her neck, his lips brushing her skin, as he pushed her shirt up and over her head and then hooked his thumbs in the band of her sports bra and tugged it up, too, "to do this right." When Shepard wiggled slightly to rid herself entirely of the offending garments, she felt the bulge in Kaidan's boxers bump against her backside. She chanced a glance at him over her shoulder. He grinned knowingly at her, kissing across the back of her shoulder up to her cheek. "Not why I'm doing this, Shepard," he muttered, a little thickly.

"I know," she answered softly, and then she caught her lower lip between her teeth as she arched her back again _just so_, feeling the heat and weight of his arousal pressing against her tailbone. Kaidan sat up and his fingers clamped around her hips, pinning her firmly to the bed with a sharp, warning crack of static.

"Stop that," he chided. He would have sounded deadly serious but for the grin threatening at the corner of his mouth, pulling the scar that bisected his lip and puckering the one that ran underneath it. "Tell me again where you're still sore?"

"Right shoulder, just under the edge of the shoulderblade," she answered dutifully. "Middle of my back, just above my waist, same side."

With one more jolt of static and a firm squeeze to her hips that told her to stay put, he brought his hands back up to her shoulder, walking his fingers along the line of her shoulderblade, digging in with his knuckles, seeking out the last of the soreness, until she groaned into the covers and rolled her shoulder against his touch. His fingers tripped down her side to the last knot in her back, his thumbs pressing into it, bleeding the tension until she hummed with contentment. And then his hands dragged down her spine again, his fingers going to her hips, his thumbs sliding under the waistband of her boxers.

She arched her hips into his hands, bumping up against his erection again. This time, he didn't stop her.

"You know," Kaidan said as he pushed his hips against hers, "I have this sneaking suspicion you've got some tension in your lower back, too."

"That's likely," Shepard answered coyly, glancing at him over her shoulder.

"And these," Kaidan rubbed his thumbs down the curve of her backside, pulling on the hem of her boxers with his wrists, "are going to have to go."

"Figured as much," Shepard responded with mock severity and a frank nod, biting back a grin as she lifted her hips to help him. "And you might as well take the underwear, too. I'd hate for it to get in the way of such," she paused, pointedly ran the tip of her tongue across her lower lip, "hard work."

Kaidan squeezed her ass with one hand at that, stripping the offending garments with the other. As she heard the fabric hit the floor, his callused thumb, lit with that terrible brilliant _marvelous_ humming static, slid between her folds, pressing lightly against her entrance and then sliding down to circle her sensitive nub. Shepard gasped and clutched at the sheets, raising her hips toward him, and Kaidan rumbled his approval.

He spread her folds open with one hand and pushed his own boxer-briefs down his hips with the other before wrapping his fingers around his thick erection. She felt his smooth head pressing against her sensitive entrance, and then she moaned into the sheets as he hilted himself with one slick push. She loved it like this - the first thrust just on the sweet side of pain, the way his chest pressed to her back and his weight pinned her to the bed.

Kaidan's arms came up over her shoulders, bracing himself as he withdrew before slamming into her again with a ragged groan. Sparks of static exploded across his skin as he leaned down to scrape his teeth against the nape of her neck. He greedily suckled the curve of her shoulder, made her gasp and moan as he plucked at her nerves with his tongue and his teeth. He thrust into her again and again, fast and deep, stretching her, _filling _her, making her fingers twist in the sheets as she scrabbled for leverage.

The tension built, coiling tightly through her belly, and then he reached down with one hand, pulling her hips higher and tighter against his, letting him push impossibly deeper as he continued pounding into her. She cried out as her orgasm broke like a wave, pleasure washing over her, through her, and there was nothing but the feel of him pushing inside her, the sound of his moans in her ear, the scrape of his teeth against the crook of her shoulder. Kaidan felt impossibly larger inside of her, stretching her further as he swelled, sending pleasure spiralling through her again. He groaned her name desperately against the curve of her neck, and she was flooded with warmth as he throbbed inside of her.

Still buried inside her, Kaidan reached to lace his fingers through hers. He nipped lightly, one last time, at her neck before pressing sweet, gentle kisses to her skin - apologizing with his lips and tongue for the marks that would likely be there in a few hours. Shepard tipped her head to give him better access to the places she knew he would want to kiss and hummed in contenment, rubbing her thumb against the back of Kaidan's knuckles.

"Thank you," she murmured, and she could feel a tired, sated grin pulling at her mouth. She felt an answering grin curving Kaidan's lips where they were pressed to the nape of her neck.

"For what?" he asked, his lips brushing tantilzingly against her skin, sending fresh shivers of pleasure coursing through her at the contact.

"Helping me work out all my tension," she smiled. His chuckle rumbled through his chest.

"Anytime, sweetheart. All you have to do is ask."


End file.
